The Q at Parkside

(for those for whom the Parkside Q is their hometrain)

News and Nonsense from the Brooklyn neighborhood of Lefferts and environs, or more specifically a neighborhood once known as Melrose Park. Sometimes called Lefferts Gardens. Or Prospect-Lefferts Gardens. Or PLG. Or North Flatbush. Or Caledonia (west of Ocean). Or West Pigtown. Across From Park Slope. Under Crown Heights. Near Drummer's Grove. The Side of the Park With the McDonalds. Jackie Robinson Town. Home of Lefferts Manor. West Wingate. Near Kings County Hospital. Or if you're coming from the airport in taxi, maybe just Flatbush is best.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Erasmus Hall Head Stabber Nabbed

It should shock no one that violence has once again erupted at a local high school. Given the portrayal of inner city schools in the Hollymediawood, I'm surprised we don't hear these stories all the time. And yet, every so often, a story captures one's attention, if only because it's so damn bizarre.

Local legend Erasmus Hall played host to a bizarre scene on Tuesday, when a b-ball game turned real ugly:

According to The Daily News, “Chevoy Nelson, 16, was mad because victim Alfredo Allen stole the ball from him during a lunchtime pickup game at the Prospect Park South school.” The News wrote:

The two teens were playing basketball in the third floor gym during lunch when Allen took the ball and wouldn’t give it to the increasingly angry Nelson. The furious teen punched Allen in the face then ran out to look for a weapon, witnesses said.

“He goes running around, asking everyone for a weapon,” said a police source. “He goes into a classroom and asks a teacher for acid. She obviously says no, but then she get distracted he grabs a pair of scissors and runs back to the gym. He chases (Allen) around, stabbing him.”

Wayne Morgan, an 18-year-old senior, said, “He stabbed the guy in the head like seven times. The teacher was there, but it’s not like he let it happen — the whole thing happened in like 5 seconds.”

Then this, the chilling clincher:

Police said after the attack Nelson went to a school office and sat quietly, his hands covered in blood.

So I'm thinking, in my armchair psychologist sorta way, that whatever lizard-brained urge this kid had to destroy his nemesis was calmed by his actions. In other words, according to his teenager DNA, he totally did the right thing.

3 comments:

Anonymous
said...

A key thing to know about this unique situation, the stabber was mentally ill and was a student at a different HS housed in the same building. In classes he has a teacher's aid assigned to watch him but during lunch he's not supervised. And clearly needed to be.

I was a teacher in the NYC Night High School System. My students told me plenty of stories over the course of 8 years. No mentally disturbed student should be in the same building even with someone assigned to him. That person turns his/her back and in an instant there's trouble. Bring back the 600 schools where severely disturbed youngsters need to be.

It's true, anon at 10:03pm, that mentally disturbed students should not even be in the same building as other kids. There's no adequate protection for them at all with or without the aid with him and focused on him. A teacher's aid is no match for a teenage kid on a rampage. Teacher's aids aren't trained bodyguards. They aren't armed with a stun gun.